Blood glucose measuring devices are used in order to determine measured values for the blood glucose value. The measured blood glucose values determined in this case are stored in the form of electronic data in a memory means of the blood glucose measuring device. They are thus available for any subsequent evaluations of the measurement results. Such an evaluation can take place on the blood glucose measuring device itself and/or outside the measuring device by reading the measured blood glucose values with the aid of an external data reading apparatus via a data interface of the blood glucose measuring device. The reading apparatus is, for example, a personal computer on which software applications can be implemented in order to present the measured blood glucose values in graph form for example or to carry out any other evaluation.
In conjunction with the reading or downloading of the measured blood glucose values, it has been proposed for the measured blood glucose values which are to be read to be accessed with the aid of a browser implemented on the personal computer, as can also be used for example for access to websites. The use of a browser makes it possible to read the measured blood glucose values without providing the personal computer with specific reading software. The measured blood glucose values can be read or downloaded with the aid of a conventional browser. To read the measured blood glucose values, an application associated with the reading process is in this case started in the blood glucose measuring device itself by the browser. Within the scope of this application, the measured values are then transmitted from the blood glucose measuring device to the reading device.
Since, in this case, the reading apparatus is not equipped with special software for reading or downloading the measured blood glucose values, there is the risk that problems or faults will occur with regard to the data transmission of the measured blood glucose values, for example due to incorrect compatibility of data formats. This may lead for example to a falsification of the presentation of the measured values presented in graph form, whereby there is the risk of an incorrect diagnosis.
A monitoring system comprising a central server means is known from document U.S. Pat. No. 6,248,065 B1. The server means is coupled on the one hand to a computer system having a display means and on the other hand via a telephone network to a plurality of remote devices. In one embodiment, one of the remote devices is connected via a cable connection to a measuring device, wherein this measuring device is a blood glucose measuring device for example. The known monitoring system can be used to collect individual patient data, for example measured blood glucose values, in the central server and to thus monitor said data. In this process, measured values for the patient are initially determined with the aid of the measuring device. In order to retrieve these measured values on the remote device connected to the measuring device via the cable connection, a microprocessor in the remote device executes a collection command that is defined in what is known as a script program. In this way, the measured data are initially transmitted from the measuring device to the remote device via the cable connection. This occurs with the aid of a collection command, which is part of a script program in the remote device. For operation of the remote device, a plurality of software objects are provided that are stored in a memory of the remote device. With the aid of the script programs, operating functions are executed by the processor of the remote device, for example the retrieval of the measured values from the measuring device. The software objects stored in the memory of the remote device also comprise a script program, which verifies the integrity of script programs in the EEPROM of the remote device and, in the event of faults, activates a back-up script program in the EPROM. This is achieved by copying the back-up script program from the EPROM into the EEPROM. In this case, the script length is then also recalculated and a checksum for the script application copied into the EEPROM is calculated.
In the known system, if the measurement data, for example measured blood glucose values, collected in the remote device are now to be transmitted to the central server, a script generator, which is in turn formed in the central server, generates a script program for this purpose. The script program generated in the central server is then transmitted to the remote device, where the measured data were previously collected. When executing the script program thus received from the central server, the remote device now transmits the measurement data previously received by the measuring device to the central server. There, these data are received and stored.